


Calling in the Dead of Night

by yet_intrepid



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-02-05 12:07:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1817896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yet_intrepid/pseuds/yet_intrepid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm going to save you," she said, as he lay dying on the Pelennor Fields. What other task had she ever had?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calling in the Dead of Night

“I’m going to save you,” she said, when she watched him succumb, little by little, to lies. So she pled, and she reasoned and prayed, and she bided her time.

But he slipped away anyway.

And “I’m going to save you,” she said, when she saw him ailing, a puppet, confused. So she spoke to him kindly. She called him  _my lord_  though his lordliness failed, called him  _my uncle_  though he could be no kin to the mother she’d known in her youth.

But he never heard her. He faded out anyway.

“I’m going to save you,” she said, when she saw him unmoved by the death of his son. “I’m going to save you,” she said, when she saw him awakened at last and struck down with the grief. “I’m going to save you,” she said, when he rode off to war not for life but for death, when the battle began and he set her aside with a breath.

“I’m going to save you,” she said, when the armies fell back before shadow. For what had she done all these years besides face down the shadow because of him, for him, to save him?

“I’m going to save you,” she said, with the shadow destroyed. His body was broken; his spirit was ready to pass. She stared uncomprehending. Was even this feat not enough?

“I’m going to save you,” she said.

He smiled at her slowly. He told her, “You already did.”


End file.
